Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun -- Mao Zedong

Halfway thru recorded history, Athens became the first state we're sure was a democracy, and inspiration to many later ones. Probably some existed earlier, and certainly some entities smaller than states were democratic, likely long before recorded history began.

The next tenth of history saw the rise of the Roman Republic, which mixed democracy and aristocracy together to form a functional hybrid, and then it transitioned to the Roman Empire, which shifted the mix substantially towards aristocracy. For the next three tenths of recorded history, democracies were at best local governments, minor regional powers, or components of larger, autocratic states.

Few, if any, of these societies would count as "democracies" according to modern watchdog organizations. Only about 10-20% of the residents of Athens were citizens; the rest possessed no real political power. In later eras, residents of towns or cities might vote for their urban officials, but the urbanization rates were also around 10-20%, so the vast majority lived in the non-democratic countryside.

Then for the last tenth of history, democracies rose again to dominate the world stage. One standard story for this has to [...]

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 3rd, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ntqpAuHTrphYzv4EG/democracy-dies-with-the-rifleman

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Democracy Dies With The Rifleman” by Vaniver

LessWrong (30+ Karma)